Description:
Emile Alexandrov is an assistant professor of philosophy, formerly at the University of Tyumen in Russia, and currently a visiting scholar at Waseda University in Tokyo. He is author of The Other Platonist Beginning and Metaphysics and Ineffable.
Emile explores the concept of the soul across Greek philosophy, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Jungian psychology, and other intellectual traditions, examining how ideas of intellect, awareness, desire, individuality, and transcendence have changed throughout history.
Emile explores the concept of the soul across Greek philosophy, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Jungian psychology, and other intellectual traditions, examining how ideas of intellect, awareness, desire, individuality, and transcendence have changed throughout history.
He discusses rebirth, karmic continuity, the Buddhist doctrine of anatta, the possibility of survival after death, and the difficult question of whether anything that survives remains individually identifiable. Alexandrov concludes by considering Russian cosmism, physical resurrection, transhumanism, and the possibility that the deepest continuity underlying the changing idea of the soul may be awareness itself.
(Recorded on Saturday, August 15, 2026)
(Recorded on Saturday, August 15, 2026)
Timeline:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:07:30 Soul and rationality
00:14:00 Desire and suffering
00:21:00 Silence and bliss
00:28:00 Enlightenment and reason
00:35:00 Tragedy and transcendence
00:42:00 Awareness and existence
00:49:00 Resurrection and survival
00:56:00 Universal resurrection
01:00:54 Conclusion